History
Gandhi's first experiments in education began at the Tolstoy Ashram in South Africa. It was much later, while living at Sevagram and in the heat of the Independence struggle that Gandhi wrote his influential article in Harijan about education. In it, he mapped out the basic pedagogy:
| “ | I hold that the highest development of the mind and the soul is possible under such a system of education. Only every handicraft has to be taught not merely mechanically as is done today, but scientifically i.e. the child should know the why and wherefore of every process....I have myself taught sandal- making and even spinning on these lines with good results. This method does not exclude a knowledge of history and geography. But I find that this is best taught by transmitting such general information By word of mouth. One imparts ten times as much in this manner as by reading and writing. The signs of the alphabet may be taught later...Of course, the pupil learns mathematics through his handicraft.
I attach the greatest importance to primary education, which according to my conception should be equal to the present matriculation less English...."Harijan of the 31st July 1937 " |
” |
A national education conference was held at Wardha on October 22–23, 1937. Afterwards two model schools were opened at Wardha and nearby Segaon. Post-basic education and pre-basic education schools were developed after Gandhi's death.
The National Planning Commission set up by the central government expressed its opposition to Gandhi's vision of Basic Education on several grounds. The Nehru government's vision of an industrialized, centrally planned economy had no place for 'basic education' or self-supported schools, rather it reflected the "vision of a powerful and growing class of industrialists, their supporters in politics and intellectuals with high qualifications in different areas, including science and technology." A further detailed history of the attempts to implement basic education in India is given by Marjorie Sykes, The History of Nai Talim. Finally, as has been noted by Krishna Kumar, "the implementation of Gandhi’s plan could not survive the ‘development decade’ of the 1960s when the Indian economy and its politics entered into a new phase featuring the penetration of Indian agriculture by the advanced economies of the West and the centralization of power."
Read more about this topic: Nai Talim
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